Next year, the UK will get back a long lost son, who has found adoptive parents in China: The MG. Gasgoo reports that the MG6 Saloon will enter the British market in 2011. That was announced by Chen Zhixin, Executive Vice President of SAIC Motor and General Manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Co., at the UK Pavilion of Shanghai Expo, while Ms. Carma Elliot, Consul General of the United Kingdom (UK) in Shanghai, was watching. Just Auto thinks the Chinese car with a British name will be shown to the UK public at the Top Gear Live MPH motor show at London’s Earls Court, on 4 November.

The MG6 Saloon will come with a 5-speed manual or Tiptronic automatic transmission. It will be powered by a 1.8-litre turbocharged gasoline engine, with a 1.9-litre turbodiesel to follow about a year after launch. According to Global Times, “SAIC Motor will start production of its MG6 model at its Longbridge plant in Birmingham. The company will make the plant an overseas production base to promote its own-brand models.”

Last I heard they’re already selling the MG-TF in England for the past year or so. Possibly assembled at a British factory (memory is a bit short). Where this is important is that it’s the first Chinese new design (with no MGR antecedents) being sold in England.

It’d be kinda fun someday to look back and realize that the MG was the first Chinese car successfully sold in the west.

The MG-TF has been in producion in the UK for 10-15 years , on and off , and the few that have been assembled under Chinese ownership are a bit dated compared to the competition.
I think a lot of the MG6 design may have been done in the UK.It will be interesting to see how the market treats it. A lot depends on how good their diesel engine is going to be.

Autocar had an early drive in the UK and said the chassis tuning is good enough to keep up with a Focus (high praise indeed in the UK) but that the interior, the five speed gearbox and engine still lacked behind the class average. The fact that it’s a saloon is also a bit of a burden for Europe but who know – priced attractively it might suffice, till a hatchback on the same basis can be developed from the proceeds (ala Logan / Sandero).

Britons are deluding themselves if they consider this a British car – it is merely a Chinese import with an MG badge slapped on. The fact that that NAC and SAIC bought the former remnants of MG Rover and Longbridge means nothing at all, neither does the use of British expertise in car building.